Monday, February 20, 2006
Pierde El Cero
Awoken early to the sounds of the hostel, we are unfortunately right behind hte office and checkin desk. Nice to get a good start though, and had a great fresh fruit filled breakfast, and then hit the hills for the Sendero Los Quetzales. Sadly, there were no Quetzales to be seen by our untrained eyes, and we didnt bother to shell out for aguide. All the same, the hike was gorgeous, beautiful rain forest for hours, and hardly another person on the trail, apparently known as one of panamas most famous.
Turning around and coming back was a hard hike, and if I had it to do over Id recommend the option of hiking and spending the night in the next town, then hiking or bussing back to Boquete.
Back home for a siesta, then took a drive up some near-sheer seeming dirt roads into the hills above the town and through the coffee fincas. Past some indians whose enormous dumptruck truck had half rolled off the raod. From the top, the view was all the way to the pacific, and spectacular of the Volcan...
Saturday, February 18, 2006
La Vida McNifica - Panama 06
So reads the billboard for the Panama City Mcdonalds.
We got the car in the morning, and then headed out toward the canal. The driving was only mildly terrifying through the city. We had little choice but to go through red lights, as it seems to be the local way of doing things around here. As if the red lights only making crossing an intersection a challenge, and green lights make it slightly easier. The drivers honk incessantly, which we finally realized that it was at every scantily clad woman on the street, which is about 90% the women on the street. Panama city is huge, one of the biggest skylines I´ve ever seen, excepting maybe NYC. It also looks exactly like the GTA Vice City, down to some of the same buidlings. Well, we finally made it through and first out to some islands that are connected with land that came from the canal digging. Then over to the canal and saw the locks in action, as some boats passed through. It really was quite impressive, though they playted terrible muzak as the ships went through. I joked that they should play Chariots of Fire, and sure enough within minutes da-da-da-da-daaaah-dah was blasting through the speakers. We checked out the musuem, which was very hi-tech and fancy but rather low on content. From there we drove northward through the canal zone and found a really nice resort and snuck into their swimming pool- its amazing what you can get away with when you dont look like a scruffy backpacking hippie or junkie.
Deeper into the canal zone, driving around these mostly empty old US Army bases, that reminded me a bit of the Presidio in San Francisco, same era, architecture and all that, except some of it decrepit and rotting which was pretty cool to look at. Stopped for luch, had some roadside sausages stuffed with pork and cilantro smoked and roasted over an open pit which were delicious. Back to the city, and stopped at the central park, which is huge and has some pretty amazing wildlife in it. Its like a rainforest in the center of the city. We saw some turtles in a little pond, and then noticed there were crocodiles in it also- no cuidado sign or anything as in most places with crocodiles. Ate at a funny panamanian diner for dinner, which had really quite good food, and back in our hotel now, with about the worst trucker tan Ive ever had.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Hasta al Infierno!
Amazing day of driving. Left panama city in the early AM to head up to the mountains of Boquete in the Chirriqui Highlands. The Panamerican was pretty easy driving, and besides the occasional pothole, one or two growing weeds out of them, it was not bad at all.
We drove off the road at one point to check out Noriegas abandoned compound, site of part of the US invasion and the first place ever bombed by a stealth bomber. It was a little creepy and bizarre, an old abandoned airstrip and some ruined barracks. We drove around on the runway tarmac, and tried to go into the tower, which turned out to be, well, less abandoned than it appeared from the outside.
Pressed onward through some tiny and nondescript latin american dusty towns, a few cigarettes got us easily past the "naval check point" (yes), and on into some more tropical towns and through the mountains which were extraordinary. Finally made it to Boquete, which has a nice feel to it and mostly appears to be Indian folk in their bright dresses living here. It reminds me of how the Arenal town in CR must have been twenty years ago. Our hostel is right over the river and quite pleasant and small, so not too gringotastic.
We took a drive further up into the mountains on some pretty rugged mountain jungle roads lush with amazing flowers and the occasional coffee plantation. Enormous cliffs covered in vines in the mist, feels like out of a fantasy novel or something. Also saw the scariest bridge Ive ever laid eyes on.
